Dianne Xiao receives NSF CAREER Award

Submitted by Diana Knight on

Assistant Professor Dianne Xiao has received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. The CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development) Program is a Foundation-wide program that “offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.”

Professor Xiao applies her expertise to the discovery of next generation materials that address unmet needs in clean energy, catalysis, and environmental remediation. Using both inorganic and organic chemistry, her group constructs porous architectures with well-defined nanoscale cavities that can be manipulated to display new reactivity and physical properties.

Professor Xiao’s NSF CAREER proposal, “CAREER: Bifunctional and Bimetallic Single-Site Catalysts for Sustainable Synthesis,” aims to design new heterogeneous catalysts that will enable more sustainable chemical synthesis, including the use of renewable feedstocks and the replacement of hazardous reagents. The Xiao group will explore how multiple metal centers and organic functional groups can work together to catalyze transformations not achievable by a single component in isolation.

In addition to the scientific goals, this project aims to broaden STEM participation and enhance public scientific literacy through outreach and educational activities. These activities will include partnership with local museums and organizations, designing new inquiry-based labs and educational resources at the college level, and creating a series of science lectures aimed at informing the public on energy and environmental issues.

For more information about this NSF CAREER Award, please visit the award website.

For more information about Professor Xiao and her research, please visit her faculty page and research group website.

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